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Sadako Yamamura
Sadako Yamamura is the main antagonist of the Japanese psychological horror film franchise Ring, and the crossover film Sadako vs Kayako which was based on the novel series of the same title by Koji Suzuki. She was a young yet troubled psychic who was brutally murdered and thrown into a well by her father or his doctor, depending on the continuity, in an attempt to stop her powers from spiralling out of control. The plan, however, failed as she returned as a ghostly serial killer, using her powers to create a cursed videotape that will kill anyone who watched it 7 days later. Her character was portrayed by the seven actresses, being Rie Inō in Ring and Ring 2,'' Hinako Saeki in ''Rasen, Yukie Nakama in Ring 0: Birthday, Ayane Miura in Ring: Kanzenban, Tae Kimura in the TV series Ring: The Final Chapter and Rasen, Ai Hashimoto in Sadako 3D, and Sadako 3D 2, ''and Elly Nanami in ''Sadako vs Kayako. In addition, she is incarnated as Park Eun-Suh in the South Korean remake and Samara Morgan in the American remake. Novels In the summer of 1946, Shizuko Yamamura retrieved a statuette of an oceanic deity, En no Ozunu, from the ocean floor with the help of her childhood friend Genji. Soon after, she began to exhibit psychic powers. The following year, against her friends' advice, Shizuko travelled to Tokyo, where upon arrival, she collapsed due to a migraine, which was revealed to be a side effect of her newly gained powers. Recovering in hospital, she met Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, a professor of psychiatry. Ikuma was fascinated by Shizuko's powers, and quickly fell in love with her. When she conceived, she traveled back to her hometown on Oshima Island to avoid causing a scandal for Ikuma. Later that year, on October 31, 1947, a baby girl named Sadako was born, and Shizuko handed her over to her grandmother whilst Shizuko moved and stayed with her lover. In 1950, when Sadako turned 3, Shizuko returned for her, and they left Oshima, not to be seen for 5 years. Within these years, Shizuko gave birth to a boy, but he died from illness after 4 months. Sadako had psychic powers like her mother but grew up isolated and socially awkward, unable to make any friends. At an ESP demonstration hosted by Dr. Ikuma, Shizuko was branded a charlatan after she abruptly ended the demonstration due to illness. Because of this, Ikuma divorced Shizuko, the latter falling into a deep depression. The following year, Sadako suggested that she and Shizuko go back to Oshima to escape the press. Before the year was over though, Shizuko committed suicide by leaping into the volcano, Mt. Mihara, and Sadako went to live at Yamamura Villa, run by her uncle, Takashi. At the age of 11, Sadako predicted the eruption of Mt. Mihara, which was proven correct, but denied having any psychic powers. Knowing what could happen if her powers grew, at the age of 19, Ikuma sent Sadako to Tokyo, where she joined the Hisho Acting Troupe. Her powers unfortunately went awry when she accidentally created a cursed sound recording, which caused five of her co-workers and the troupe director to die of heart attacks. It is reported that Sadako fell in love with Toyama, the sound manager, but after a spiteful troupe member exposes their intimacy through an explicit recording, Sadako left Toyama and never returned. In the summer of 1966, her father contracted tuberculosis after trying to gain psychic powers on his own. Sadako visited him frequently at the sanatorium. On one of her visits, she was raped by a man named Nagao Joutarou, a young doctor who watched her bedridden father. When he raped her, he found out that, while appearing female, she had external testes due to Testicular Feminization Syndrome. It was a secret she kept hidden throughout most of her life and, ashamed, she telekinetically attacks him. However, he strangled her and threw her down a nearby well. Sadako survived on sheer willpower for 20 years in the well before dying. In the late 1980s, a resort is built over the site, with the sanatorium converted into a restaurant, and log cabins built. In late August, a family from Tokyo stayed in cabin B-4, which conveniently had the TV and VCR placed directly above the well. The son, who was a devoted fan of a certain comedy show, wanted to watch it. But his parents, being the ones in control, were watching something on NHK. The son agreed to record the show, which gave Sadako, as a vengeful ghost, the opening she needed. The channels were different in Hakone—but of course some child would never know that. Embedding the ring virus into the tape and burning the images, the original tape was created. After four high school students are killed by Sadako's curse, investigators Asakawa and Ryuji postulate that Sadako mutated the smallpox virus, which she contracted from Nagao, with her own DNA and her psychic powers, planting it in the tape she made through nensha. The virus passes on to those who watch the tape in the form of a throat tumor which kills the victim within a week, forcing them to hallucinate their own rotting face shortly before death. The only way to survive is by copying the tape and passing it to someone else. Films In 1951, Shizuko Yamamura, a psychic from Oshima Island, sat on the beach where she stared at the ocean for hours. In reality, Shizuko was communicating to a sea demon in an inhuman language. Eventually, the sea demon impregnated Shizuko with a baby girl named Sadako. Shizuko intended to abandon the baby girl at a nearby cave but Sadako was still there, even when the waves tried to wash her away. Reluctantly, Shizuko raised Sadako as her own child. At the same time, Shiuzko predicted the eruption of Mt. Mihara with her psychic powers. Hoping to make money off of Shizuko, her brother Takashi leaked this to the press, and Shizuko became famous overnight. This attracted the attention of Dr. Heihachiro Ikuma, a university professor from Tokyo who wanted to prove the existence of ESP. He sailed to Oshima Island and visited Shizuko, where they began a love affair and eventually married each other. Noticing that Shizuko's daughter Sadako had no father, Ikuma took the role of being her father. After their marriage, Ikuma took Shizuko and Sadako to Tokyo to study their powers and use them as evidence for his experimental studies on the existence of ESP. A few years later, Ikuma held an ESP demonstration in Tokyo with members of the press present. Ikuma and Shizuko proceeded with the demonstration whilst Sadako watched from backstage. Even though Shizuko never failed in proving her psychic abilities, Miyaji, a journalist, denounced her as a fraud. Other journalists also joined in the slander against Shizuko. Having enough of this unfair treatment, Sadako used her psychic abilities to stop Miyaji's heart, instantly killing him. The journalists observed his dead body and noticed his face was permanently twisted with fear, prompting them to blame Shizuko for his death. However, the true killer simply scuttled away. After the demonstration, Ikuma was fired from his university and Sadako split into two clones of herself: one was good whilst the other was evil. He moved his wife and the Sadako clones to his house in the forests of Izu Peninsula. According to Miyaji's fiancé Akiko, all of the people who were involved in the slander against Shizuko were found dead. It is implied that Sadako, particularly her evil clone, killed them one by one. Meanwhile, Shizuko grew depressed and ultimately insane as she often spent hours combing her hair in front of the mirror with a grim expression on her face. Shizuko eventually returned to Oshima Island to jump into the crater of Mt. Mihara on the same day she accurately predicted it to erupt. Ikuma allowed the good Sadako clone to live a normal life whilst he drugged the evil Sadako clone to prevent her from growing and locked her in the attic. In 1970, the good Sadako clone, whom everyone simply referred to as Sadako, joined an acting school in Tokyo as recommended by her psychiatrist. Her natural beauty and charisma captivated her fellow troupe members, especially Toyama, whom Sadako fell in love with. However, the evil Sadako clone tracked her down and tormented her everyday. She also created a cursed sound recording which killed several troupe members, causing the other troupe members to fear and turn against Sadako. Meanwhile, the vengeful Akiko tracks Sadako down at the acting school and arms herself with a gun to protect herself from Sadako's presence. Akiko tries to gain evidence that Sadako actually possessed psychic powers and after successfully gaining evidence, she convinces Toyama's ex-girlfriend Etsuko to expose Sadako's past to the public by playing the recording of the infamous ESP demonstration during a theatrical performance. This causes Sadako's powers to go awry and kill her psychiatrist, leading the other troupe members, except for Toyama and Etsuko who restrains him, to angrily beat Sadako unconscious. Returning to Sadako's childhood home, Akiko and the other troupe members demand Ikuma to reveal the whereabouts of the evil Sadako clone. Ikuma agrees but when Akiko storms the attic, she finds her missing. Meanwhile, the evil Sadako clone goes outside and merges with the unconscious good Sadako clone, reviving her. In her merged form, Sadako kills all the troupe members, including the sympathetic Toyama. Akiko and Etsuko survive the killing spree and hide in the house but Sadako corners them and forces them to shoot themselves. Ikuma returns and fearing what his daughter might become, he plans to drug her with poison. Knowing his plans, Sadako flees outside to an old well. Ikuma chases her and grabs a nearby machete, bludgeoning her head twice, before dumping her body inside the well. Sadako used the power of hate to sustain herself for 30 years but eventually dies. Many years later, Ikuma's house was sold after his mysterious death and it was later converted into a set of rental cabins, which were built directly over the well. According to an urban legend, a Tokyo schoolboy travelled to the cabins for a vacation with his family. Not wanting to miss his favourite TV program from Tokyo, the boy found a nearby blank videotape and recorded the TV program, completely unaware that the channels in Izu were different than the ones in Tokyo. Meanwhile, as a vengeful ghost, Sadako transferred disturbing images onto the blank videotape and the boy unknowingly watched the entirety of the cursed tape. He received a phone call from Sadako, warning him that he'll die in 7 days later. Seven days later, the boy was found dead and its presumed that Sadako found him and killed him on the 7th day. Many people dismissed this as a mere urban legend until four teenagers were killed in the exact same manner after watching the exact same tape in the exact same place, prompting a prolific investigation. ''Sadako vs Kayako'' Powers and Abilities Over the course of the Ring ''series, Sadako displayed a vast array of psychic powers when she was alive. After her death, Sadako returned as a vengeful ghost with long, black hair concealing her face and fingernails torn off and wields more destructive psychic powers, which were fully manifested in her creation of the infamous cursed videotape. *'Nensha': Sadako can transfer disturbing sounds and images onto electronic devices, mainly through sound recordings and videotapes. Any technology affected by her nensha powers were cursed, killing anyone who used them. *'Immortality': Sadako can be immortal and resurrect herself any time she wants. Whilst imprisoned in the well for nearly 30 years, she used her power of hate to keep herself alive. In the films, the consciousness of her good clone remains active, as shown by her decision to leave clues within her cursed videotape to aid her victims in surviving and ultimately sympathising with her story. Its unknown why she gave up and died but its implied that Sadako already knew about the accelerated strength and power she'd receive if she became a vengeful ghost. *'Emerging out of screens': As a vengeful ghost, Sadako can break the laws of physics by emerging out of TV screens. Her body size is dependent on the size of the screen, as shown in ''Sadako 3D. *'Telekinesis': Sadako can move objects into different positions, which was demonstrated through her ability to reposition her mother's mirror on the other side of the room as a childish prank. *'Telepathy': Sadako knows exactly who has watched her cursed videotape and where they watched it and even gives them a phone call to remind them of their 7 days deadline. *'Resurrection': Sadako was infamously resurrected as a vengeful ghost after her death and can even resurrect some of her past victims. She is immune to any harm inflicted upon her and remains seemingly immortal. *'Possession': Sadako can possess her victims into being like her by tormenting and killing other people. *'Death Staring': Sadako can simply cause her victims to die of a heart attack by revealing her grostequely malformed eye. Her sheer presence can alternatively drive people to commit suicide in brutal ways and cause people to drop dead on the spot, even without showing her eye. *'Precognition': In the novels, Sadako could predict the eruption of Mount Mihara and envision herself being reborn in Mai Takano's womb. *'Teleportation': Sadako can suddenly reappear in front of victims and corner them, no matter how far they run away from her. As a vengeful ghost, Sadako does not need to scale the walls of the well she was thrown into and can simply appear wherever she wants. *'Dream Manipulation': Sadako can invade the dreams or subconscious of the people who have viewed her cursed videotape. She can also re-enact scenes from her life and the cursed videotape and even physically attack the dreamer by grasping onto their arm, leaving a bruise. *'Biokinesis': In the novels, Sadako combines the smallpox virus she contracted from her rapist and her own DNA to form the Ring Virus, which is then transmitted onto a videotape. Once the tape was viewed, the Ring Virus clogs their arteries and ultimately kills them via a heart attack in 7 days. The Ring Virus can be transferred onto books, journals, reports, movies about Sadako and into a supercomputer project known as LOOP. *'Healing Abilities': In Ring 0: Birthday, Sadako's good clone used these abilities to heal those around her, including her lover Toyama and an elderly disabled man. *'Mediumship': When Sadako was alive, she could see the ghosts of Shizuko and Miyaji and the other journalists present at the infamous ESP demonstration. This often causes her to break down, often resulting in her powers going awry. *'Clone Splitting and Merging': Sadako was able to split into two clones of herself in Ring 0: Birthday and merge with another entity to form one in Sadako vs Kayako. '' *'Exposing Others to Powers': A bystander witnessing someone being killed by Sadako can gain some of her psychic abilities themselves as a result of being exposed to her presence. *'Body Manipulation': Sadako can contort the limbs and audibly crack the bones within her body, causing her to walk in a jerkingly inhumane fashion. She can also use her hair as a weapon, mainly to drag, impale or take others captive as seen in ''Sadako vs. Kayako. *'Superhuman Strength': Despite being able to effortlessly slaughter numerous people without using any weapons or physically attacking them, Sadako displays her physical poweress by violently dragging others, instantly snapping and breaking people's necks and driving her victims to commit suicide through violent and gruesome means. *'Paralyzing Others': Sadako is able to paralyze her victims to prevent them from escaping by her mere presence. *'Stealing Souls': Sadako can steal the souls of her victims and turn them into vengeful ghosts themselves, who assist her in perpetuating the curse. Tomoko in Ring, for example, turned into a vengeful ghost after being killed by Sadako and manipulates her cousin Yoichi to watch the cursed videotape. Some of these ghosts even reside within the well Sadako was trapped in. *'Curse Manipulation': Sadako can adjust her curse to modern technology and even change the rules (e.g. in Sadako vs. Kayako the curse videotape deadline was limited to 2 days) to her own liking. Victims #Miyaji - Heart attack. #Several unnamed journalists - Killed one by one over an unspecified period of time. #Aiko Hazuki - Heart attack. #Yusaku Shigemori - Neck forcefully sprained and broken. #Dr. Wataru Kuno - Breaks neck and spine after collapsing on top of candles due to shock. #Hiroshi Toyama - Heart attack. #Troupe member #1 - Heart attack. #Troupe member #2 - Heart attack. #Troupe member #3 - Heart attack. #Troupe member #4 - Heart attack. #Troupe member #5 - Heart attack. #Kaoru Arima - Heart attack. #Etsuko Tachihara - Shot in the head by Akiko, influenced by Sadako. #Akiko Miyaji - Forced by Sadako to shoot herself. #Heihachiro Ikuma (presumed) - Heart attack. #An unnamed schoolboy from Izu - Heart attack. #Tomoko Oishi - Heart attack. #Iwata Suichi - Skull smashed in motorcycle accident. #Tadehiko Nomi - Heart attack. #Yoko Tsuji - Heart attack. #Ryuji Takayama - Heart attack. #Kōichi Asakawa - Heart attack. #Kanae Sawaguchi - Heart attack. #Masami - Exhaustion due to severe mental overload. #Reiko Asakawa (implied) - Hit by truck after being distracted by a vision of Yoichi, who was influenced by Sadako. #Takashi Yamamura - Drowned. #Dr. Kawajiri - Electrocuted in swimming pool. #Unnamed nurse - Electrocuted in swimming pool. #Tominaga Tetsuo - Hit by truck. #Noriko Morisaki - Thrown off building. #Numerous viewers of the cursed video in Sadako 3D - Heart attack. #Seiji Kashiwada - Heart attack. #Detective Koiso's partner - Committed suicide under the influence of Sadako. #Nagi Ando's victims - Possessed by Sadako in an attempt to be reborn and her victims are killed in multiple ways. #Yasue - Strangled by a cord. #Machimane - Throat slit by knife. #Keiko - Falls off the second level of a store to her death. #Hōryū's assistant #1 - Neck snapped. #Hōryū's assistant #2 - Neck forcibly stretched and head twisted. #Hōryū - Smashes her own skull whilst being possessed. #Shin'ichi Morishige - Face smashed by a possessed Hōryū. #Several of Hōryū's assistants - Necks twisted and snapped in the presence of Sadako. #Natsumi Ueno - Hanged by a belt. Gallery Images Sadako.jpeg|Sadako while alive. ring0.jpg|Sadako's evil clone creeping behind Etsuko. sadako-obake-paper.jpg|Sadako in her killing mode whilst alive. vlcsnap-567280.png|Sadako in well. skullsada.jpg|Sadako's remains. Sa80oT9V7ng.jpg|Sadako approaches Tomoko. HvZ2E3qWk88.jpg|Reiko sees Sadako in the reflection. KLi0a_lbq6I.jpg|Sadako approaches Ryuji. knS3WQHpUvI.jpg|Sadako before Ryuji. hcnMODPAB40.jpg 3zebqJha8VY.jpg|Sadako grabs Reiko's hand. tumblr_mel0e8BaRa1r7ocyio1_400.gif|Sadako in the dimension of the cursed videotape. z0MWLkd1Dgc.jpg WnhIaSNPtgA.jpg|Sadako emerges from the TV. eEWapNuKDPs.jpg SadakoEye.jpg|Sadako's death stare which literally causes her victims to die of fright, shock or heart attack. qGz6Ovudlig.jpg|Sadako talks to Mai. 3X_3QHuQBzE.jpg|Sadako emerges from Takanori's computer. qcX0xtdqIKc.jpg btMza_jrzP4.jpg|Sadako talks to Akane. 1288967.jpg|Sadako in the house of her rival Kayako. Sadako-vs-Kayako-Aimi-Satsukawa.jpg|Sadako preparing to hang Natsumi. Videos The Ring Evolution in Movies & TV. (Sadako & Samara) Trivia *Her name means "chaste" (free from any sexual intercourse) in Japanese which may hint to her inability to reproduce due to her Testicular Feminization Syndrome and her obsession of procreating by successfully allowing herself to be reborn (this is explained in the original novels). *Sadako was thrown into the well in 1970, which is coincidentally the same year her American remake counterpart Samara Morgan was born. Sadako survived in the well for many years using her power of hate before her death during the same day Reiko in the first Ring ''film watched the cursed videotape. *In ''Ring 0: Birthday, Sadako's elementary teacher revealed that during a field trip at a beach, Sadako warned her classmates not to play in the water or otherwise the sea monster will get them. Her predictions, unfortunately, came true as her entire class vanished that day and the sea monster could possibly be a reference to her biological father. *Despite her ghastly image, she was described to be very attractive whilst she was alive. However, her Testicular Feminisation Syndrome in the novels turned off most of her potential lovers. *Sadako Yamamura was based on the character Okiku from the Japanese folkloric tale caled "Banchō Sarayashik", who was the servant of a samurai, who eventually killed her by throwing her in the well as she rejected his amorous advances. She became a vengeful ghost like Sadako who haunted the samurai day and night. *Sadako is based on the life of early-20th century psychic Sadako Takahashi, an apparent practitioner of nensha, the art of projecting images onto film by thought alone. In 1931, Takahashi was studied by psychologist Tomokichi Fukurai for his book "Clairvoyance and Thoughtography". 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